2010

It's time to spread some holiday cheer, and this year one of our favorite new seasonal soundtracks comes from the UK trio, The Puppini Sisters. A jovial, swinging collection of familiar holiday favorites makes Christmas With The Puppini Sisters a can't miss from top to bottom!

Rumors of a Roxy Music reunion swirled around the making of Olympia. And while the album bares just the name Bryan Ferry, Olympia. is witness to collaborations with a number of Roxy alums as well as healthy dose of guest stars. Ferry sounds effortlessly in the now on his 13th studio album and only his second album of mostly original material since the mid-90s.

XPN Artist To Watch, Warpaint, may have just released their full-length debut, but the LA four-piece have been crafting their sound for the last six years. Having gone through a variety of line-up changes since forming in 2004, the all-female cast appears settled in on The Fool. And while it’s been over a half-decade since the band first plugged in, it’s no surprise on their debut that they offer up a well-crafted, seductive set of songs.

Cee Lo Green has been an influential music-maker for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until his collaboration with DJ/producer Danger Mouse as Gnarls Barkley that he found mainstream success. As the world went crazy for Gnarls Barkley, Green began to trademark his left-of-center personality with elaborate on-stage costumes and of course, that unmistakable voice. While his Gnarls Barkley counterpart has kept busy this year with projects like Broken Bells and producing the likes of The Black Keys, Cee Lo Green has saved arguably one of the year’s most intriguing releases, The Lady Killer, until now.

Could’ve? … Should’ve? … Would’ve? Three questions musicians ask themselves often, especially when it comes to what to do next in their careers. We spend a lot of time analyzing the career trajectories of our favorite artists, but rarely do we get to listen to what exactly those different directions would have sounded like. Well, for fans of Bruce Springsteen, The Promise offers answers to those questions at perhaps the most pivotal point of his career.

On their new studio album The Grand Theatre Vol. 1, the alt-country rockers Old 97's set out to remind us what captivated so many fans early in their career. This latest collection is a raucous, energy-filled set of songs that does its best to capture the band’s heralded on-stage intensity in the studio.

For nearly 15 years, Belle & Sebastian has set their mark on the indie-music world with a unique brand of pristine pop that continues to earn Stuart Murdoch and his band mates critical praise. While commercial success, for whatever reason, has been elusive it’s hard to argue with the musical results. On their eighth studio album, Write About Love, Belle & Sebastian deliver another collection of irresistible ear-candy while writing about exactly what they profess, love.

No, the new album from Sufjan Stevens is not a concept record about Alaska, Louisiana, Montana or any of the 50 states for that matter. Yet while his ambition of creating a musical-map of our country may have subsided (for the moment), the new full-length album The Age Of Adz is a sonic adventure all to itself.

Kings of Leon were propelled to stardom with the release of their 2008 Grammy nominated album Only By The Night. Their 5th studio album Come Around Sundown, another collection of undeniable rock anthems, comes almost exactly two years after and does little to lessen the argument that the Followill family currently reign as the biggest rock band in America.

While World Cafe is a year away from officially turning 20 years old, Live At The World Cafe Volume 30 is being released today. Another fantastic, fine collection of Cafe recordings, recorded live in the World Cafe Performance Studio at WXPN in Philadelphia.